


Where You Are Now

by Havanar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Police, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Friends With Benefits, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, M/M, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pining James, Pining Keith (Voltron), Slow Burn, Smoker Keith, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 13:46:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15887265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Havanar/pseuds/Havanar
Summary: Keith thinks he must be genetically predisposed to addiction. Nicotine, alcohol, sometimes gaming. There must be a reason why he just can't quit, even when his friends tell him over and over that it's not good for him, when Shiro tells him that nicotine will ruin his teeth, even when he knows he should stop.But he definitely doesn't expect to run into an old addiction at Shiro's wedding, in a dark suit with deep brown eyes.Also known as the police / FWB to lovers AU we all neededArchive warnings & ratings may change.





	Where You Are Now

**Author's Note:**

> Well this started as a one shot, and then grew into something else, not exactly sure what yet haha.
> 
> This wasn't meant to be a police AU but I was watching a lot of B99, soooo.

“I now pronounce you married.” The officiant says.

The crowd erupts into applause as Shiro pulls Adam in for a kiss. It’s quick, chaste. Keith can see the blush rising on both of their cheeks as Shiro rests their foreheads together.

Keith joins in the clapping, looking around at the faces surrounding him. He recognises most of the people in the front rows with him; Adam’s family, a distant relative of Shiro’s, and the rest of their team. But there are so many more people filling out the rows of seats behind them. And he really needs a cigarette. The nicotine patch hidden under his shirt isn’t doing anything for him.

Keith hadn’t been sure about taking the front row at first, hadn’t been sure about being best man at first either. But Shiro had insisted.

“You’re as good as family, Keith.” He’d said.

 

 

* * *

 

 

It’s not until the reception, after a quick smoke, that Keith recognises a familiar face. Standing next to a table a few feet away, slicked back brown hair, deep brown eyes, a sharp chin.

He leans closer to Lance, trying to make it seem natural.

“2 pm.” He mutters, Allura leans in to listen too. “Is that who I think it is?” He asks, voice low.

They’re leaning against the bar, drinks in hand. A beer for Keith, some kind of martini for Lance, wine for Allura. Adam and Shiro are on the dance floor. Hunk and Pidge had been the first to join in and were currently doing some kind of eccentric version of the tango. Lance and Allura had hung back to stay with Keith, but he can already feel Lance twitching to drag Allura onto the dance floor.

He tries to look anywhere else while Lance and Allura sneak peaks.

“No fucking way.” Lance mutters under his breath.

“James?” He asks, turning to Keith. “Why would they invite James?”

“Who is James?” Allura asks over Lances’ shoulder.

Keith still isn’t sure where exactly her accent is from. At this point it really is too late to ask.

“Some guy from the academy.” Lance shrugs.

_Not just some guy._ Keith wants to correct him.

“Oh, a friend?” Allura asks.

_More than a friend._

“He and Keith used to argue a lot. They were always fighting about grades, who could run the fastest, who could spar better.” Lance explains.

“Like rivals?”

“No, babe, me and Keith were rivals.” Lance turns to her to explain. Keith tries to hold back his groan.

“You were in the set below me for everything except marksmanship.” Keith says before he can stop himself.

In all honesty he hadn’t even known Lance existed until their fourth year at the academy, right before they’d both been assigned to Shiro’s squadron.

“Yeah, but we were like rivals, y’know, Keith and Lance, neck and neck.” Lance grins, his tone becoming competitive.

Allura stifles a laugh and meets Keith’s eye over Lance’s shoulder.

“Sure, Lance.” Keith says. He doesn’t want to destroy his friends delusions of grandeur tonight. They’re partners now, that’s what counts.

“Shiro trained you in the academy too, right?” Allura says, taking a sip of her wine. It’s a deep red, almost the same shade as Keith’s tie.

“Yeah, that was before he lost his arm.” Lance fills in.

Before Shiro went undercover during their third year he had mentored Keith. Keith had been part of a big brothers programme run by Shiro’s department. Giving kids with a bad record a big brother, a mentor really, to help them get onto the straight and narrow. He knows now that the whole thing had been propaganda to get kids into the police force. But Shiro had done so much more, he’d taken Keith under his wing. Made him into the man he was today. He’d even written his reference letter when Keith had applied to the academy.

But Shiro had disappeared for a year, returning to head up his own squad with a prosthetic arm, a buzzcut, and more scars than Keith could count. He’d chosen Keith, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk for his squad just a few months later.

James had been assigned to a squad on the other side of the city.

“Think he’s spotted you, buddy.” Lance mutters and Keith puts his hand to his face, gripping the top of his nose like he has a headache to hide his face from James.

“What is with you?” Lance asks. “What’s so bad about seeing him here? You look like you’re about to somersault over the bar.”

Keith groans internally.

“We used to have sex.” He mutters, low enough that he hopes Allura doesn’t hear. She’ll hear later, Lance will definitely tell her. And everyone else. But at least he won’t have to do it.

“Dude. Gross.” Lance says.

“Watch it, you’re at a wedding for two guys.” Keith mutters.

“Not the gay part, the you and James part.” Lance replies quickly.

Keith sneaks a peak at James from between his fingers. He’s still talking to the blonde girl at the table, does he recognise her? From the academy? He isn’t sure. Her face does look familiar, Leif? Leafdotter?

It takes everything not to take Lance’s words to heart and somersault over the bar when James meets his eyes andraises his glass. Keith feels his cheeks heat. In embarrassment, he tells himself.

“I’m going to find Shiro.” He announces. “Best man stuff.” He adds, pushing off from the bar.

“The weddings over, you’ve done the best man bit.” Lance calls after him before adding: “Where’s Pidge, I have to tell her.”

Keith flings a middle finger over his shoulder in Lances direction, ignoring his hoot of laughter.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Keith doesn’t find Shiro. Instead he finds an empty table on the other side of the dance floor and nurses his beer, and then another. And another. Alcohol is good, but it doesn’t have the same kick as nicotine. And smoking is more acceptable while working, anyway. He catches glimpses of the dance floor through the throng of people. It’s that part of the night when the DJ switches to slow, sappy, love songs. He catches a glimpse of Shiro and Adam, foreheads together, arms around one another, Shiro is whispering something low into Adam’s ear that he can’t hear, and then they’re gone. Hidden by two women holding hands.

Once, he’d hoped that he’d be the one married to Shiro. The one dancing with him into the early hours of the morning. Once he’d hated Adam with every nerve and every breath. But he doesn’t anymore. That crush was over now. And it was a crush, because Shiro had been his mentor, and his friend, his big brother, his captain, all rolled into one. Because there was seven years between them, because he hadn’t known Shiro like Adam had.

He leans his head into his hand, letting the lights of the tent merge, until they’re floating like shards of light. He blinks when he catches sight of Pidge and Hunk, hands clasped together as Pidge leans her head on his chest.

He’s not sure when he became the single one in their friendship group, in their squad. Maybe sometime after Lance finally won Allura over? Or did Pidge and Hunk come after that? He’s so lost in the thought that he doesn’t register someone joining his table. Or maybe it’s the beer.

He flinches as his new companion puts down his glass heavily.

_Fuuuuuuck._ Flies across his mind.

James Griffin sits opposite him, he’s taller; broader, now. His hair is slicked back, his eyes piercing Keith’s. Keith suddenly feels self conscious about his own hair. Pidge had tried to run a brush through it earlier for him, but it hadn’t really made a difference.

He looks good in a suit. It’s a dark grey, matched with a thin orange tie. It brings out his eyes. Keith can’t stop himself from looking, from drinking all of James in. He has always had a thing for a guy in a good suit.

“I think you might have to drink a few glasses of water before bed tonight.” James says, eyeing up the glasses sitting in front of Keith.

“What are you doing here, Griffin?” Keith asks, sitting up straighter. He doesn’t respond to the water thing. He’s not drunk. And if he is the sight of James has definitely sobered him up.

“I was invited?” James tries, blinking at Keith like he’s said something completely stupid.

“By who?”

“Adam.” He responds coolly.

The confusion must have spread to Keith’s face because James raises his eyebrows before elaborating.

“We’re both on Garrison Police Forces’ football team.” He says, eyebrows raised in surprise that Keith really didn’t know.

“Huh.” Is all Keith can bring himself to say.

He can’t help but think about how good James looks. How good he looked during their years at the academy, how good he felt, over Keith, how good his hands were when they pulled Keith’s hair.

He snaps out of it when he catches sight of Lance and Allura out of the corner of his eye, moving gracefully around the dance floor, Allura’s dress fanning out behind her.

“Still hung up on Shiro, then?” James asks, and Keith’s head jerks around so fast he’s sure he’s given himself whiplash.

“What, no, why would I be? He’s my best friend.” He blurts out, way too fast to sound convincing.

James doesn’t look convinced. His eyes narrowing.

“I’m not.” He huffs, standing up. “I need a smoke.” He mumbles to James before turning and heading for the exit.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Keith knows that smoking is unattractive, that it’s planting things in his lungs that will kill him. He knows that it’s yellowing his teeth, that it makes him irritable, but he doesn’t care. Sometimes he just needs the nicotine. He gets cranky without it.

He’s on his second cigarette when James reappears. He decides that he deserves it. Deserves the forcefield around him that the smoke seems to create, pushing everyone away. He knows he’s getting wound up, winding himself up over Shiro, and James, and how he doesn’t have anyone to slow dance with to Ed-fucking-Sheeran. Weddings were supposed to be fun, but all this one has done is remind him how alone he is. He stamps the butt into the ground with more force than was probably needed.

“You smoke now?” James asks.

Keith lets out a groan. Can’t he take a hint?

“Do you not know anyone else here?” He asks, letting some of his frustration leak into his voice. _Why can’t he just leave me alone? Why can’t he just take his perfect suit and his perfect hair and find someone else to annoy?_

“I do, but I feel like we have a lot more catching up to do.” James says.

There’s a coil inside Keith’s chest, winding tighter and tighter every time James opens his stupid - perfect - mouth. His mouth that can _do_ things to Keith that no one else can. That can make him fall apart like no one else can.

James must recognise the look on his face, the undeniable lust, because that smirk is back. The one Keith had seen hundreds of times before as James leaned over him, a hand cupping him as lips found their way to his neck.

“You’re not still in the habit of moaning Shiro’s name are you?” James asks as he leans closer.

Keith doesn’t know if it’s the drink, or the nicotine, or the loneliness, but he doesn’t do anything to stop James. He takes in a low breath, eyes transfixed on James’ mouth.

“Because, you know, I never once heard you moan mine.” James finishes as he presses his mouth to Keith’s. Keith opens for him immediately, surrendering to James’ tongue, and James takes it, takes all that Keith will give him. A moment later his thigh is between Keith’s, pressing firmly into him.

Keith’s breaths are coming out ragged as he lets James take, take, take. He lets it hitch as James’ hand fists into his hair, pulling slightly, and he can’t stop a small moan from escaping into James’ mouth.

And then James pulls away, his fingers leaving Keith’s hair. His body separating from Keith’s. And he looks so, together. So calm and collected. So smug.

Keith is still breathing heavily, eyes fixed on James. He can feel the red in his cheeks. He must look a mess, suit ruffled, hair tangled. And all by James _fucking_ Griffin.

James leans in one last time, pressing a folded paper into Keith’s pocket, the one above his left breast. His lips are dangerously close to Keith’s ear. For a split second, Keith thinks he’s leaning in for round two; lets himself believe he is. He braces himself for it, for James to plant a kiss just behind his ear.

“I think you’re having a withdrawal, Kogane. And I don’t think it’s from the nicotine.” He says , his breath hot on Keith’s ear, before turning to go back inside.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Keith waits until he gets home to unfold the piece of James left in his pocket. He'd spent the rest of his night trying to ignore the burn of it over his heart, the twitch in his fingers to open it right there and then. But he hadn't wanted to give James the satisfaction.

He waits until Lance’s car had pulled away, moving off a little too quickly before reaching into his suit pocket and yanking the note out.

He unfolds it in the dim of his apartment to reveal a phone number.

> _080-2521-XXXX_
> 
> _Call me for a good time ;)_

He scrunches the paper up in his hands, clenching his fist over it as tight as he can.

But he can’t bring himself to throw it out.

**Author's Note:**

> please come yell at me about this AU, or about Jeith at [Havanarr](http://havanarr.tumblr.com/)
> 
> Shout out to my amazing betas (& the people who come up with my titles) [MysticAsassin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MysticAssassin) and [Talesofivylight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Talesofivylight)


End file.
